Engineered drive solutions provider Vulkan Drive Tech is increasingly looking north of South Africa’s borders for growth opportunities, given the current conditions in the local mining industry.

New opportunities are emerging in the rest of Africa, Vulkan South Africa MD Robert Lowin says, adding that the company is well placed to take advantage of those opportunities. The firm focuses on the mining, oil and gas, bulk materials handling, energy and iron and steel industries.
Lowin reports that Vulkan, which has 120 years of experience in supplying power transmission and braking systems for industrial applications, continues to advance its products to meet the demands of the mining industry.

“With the ever-increasing demands and technology trends of industrial applications, the need to be a competent innovator of reliable solutions is becoming more and more prevalent,” says Lowin.

As a leading manufacturer of low-speed external backstops, Vulkan has the ability to engineer around its customers’ requirements – from customisable torque arms, to suit drive requirements and end covers to prevent debris build up.

Feedback from customers is at the core of Vulkan’s research and development (R&D). “With Vulkan, product development and design alterations always start from the customers who use them,” says Lowin.

Some of the recent backstop advancements include an optional extended oil reservoir storing more oil for lubrication, reducing the mean time between maintenance and prolonging the life of the product in the event maintenance is not carried out. Continuous advancements in product performance characteristics and product testing ensure a dependable and reliable backstop, operating even under the harshest conditions.

One of the recent international success stories for Vulkan is the supply of a tailored low-speed external backstop for Vale’s Moatize refurbishment project, in Mozambique. “Vulkan South Africa’s quick delivery time and competent support led to a successful installation and allowed us to maintain our vision as a complete engineered drive solutions provider,” the company states.

Commenting on technology trends, Lowin says that variable speed drives are increasingly replacing the need for a coupling as the soft start in conveyor design. This has led to Vulkan developing Flexomax GSN coupling product range, which is optimised to ensure reliability, longevity and ease of assembly.

“Our low inertia Flexomax GSN/D is an anti-backlash bidirectional coupling designed to increase heat exchange across the unique polyurethane compound element, ensuring lower cost of ownership and maintenance downtime. The simplistic coupling design allows for options to radially remove the element during maintenance without the need to move the motor and gearbox,” he explains.

Vulkan also has “countless” project successes in industrial braking systems, specifically in belt con- veyors and stackers/reclaimers. “From our less demanding electro- hydraulic disc brakes to the more demanding Vulkan intelligent SYBRA digital controlled proportional hydraulic disc braking systems, there isn’t an application Vulkan cannot handle,” Lowin states.

At Electra Mining Africa, the com- pany plans to unveil its new solution to a low-speed connecting coupling for conveyor drives.

Hall 6 Stand G35